has done, fix upon a passage in some one part of Scripture, pervert that passage from its true meaning, accommodate it, when so perverted, to her own views, and ground upon it a doctrine which, brought to a part of Scripture not perverted, is found to be opposed to it: but in every such case, where the Church is to declare her voice on the side of religion, she is to let Scripture speak in all its fullness and integrity, and impose nothing on the faith of mankind that cannot be found in it. The Church is certainly "the witness and keeper of Holy Writ." It is in the hands of the Christian Church in the same way as it was once in the hands of the Jewish, and being read in the Church in successive ages, the Church bears witness to its purity. But over God's written Word the Church has no power, to alter, or add to it, or to set it aside, and supersede its authority by the introduction of new laws that are at variance with it: and if any Church should dare to do so, it is an apostate Church, that has cut itself off from the communion of the faithful. bishop Cranmer well writes, " as the register keepeth men's wills and yet hath none authority to add, change, or take away, nor yet to expound the wills further than the very words of the will extend unto (so that he hath no power over the will, but by the will); even so hath the Church no further power over the Holy Scripture (which containeth the will and Testament of God) but only to keep it, and to see it observed and kept. For if the Church proceed to make any new articles of the faith, besides

Upon this point, Arch

the Scripture, or contrary to the Scripture, or direct not the forms of life according to the same; then it is not the pillar of truth, nor the Church of Christ, but the synagogue of Satan, and the temple of Antichrist, which both erreth itself, and bringeth into error as many as do follow it."

Look then at your Church, Brethren, and ask yourselves, whether, in all conscience, you may not adhere to her? Where is the intolerance that her enemies charge her with? Where are the burdens that she lays on the conscience? or where the laws, opposed to Scripture, which she requires you to obey? But look at the Church of Rome. There is pride, intolerance, and impiety without a parallel. Claiming infallibility, the prerogative of God, she asserts her right to impose on the world as an article of faith whatever she decrees, and where compliance is withheld or reluctantly given, she enforces obedience. Trampling on God's law, she has set up human tradition: upon this tradition she has grounded doctrines and ceremonies the most abhorrent to God's Word; and yet these things must be believed "as necessary to salvation;" to deny them is heresy; and heresy is punishable with death! The tortures of the Inquisition, the burnings at the stake, the massacres of men, whose only crime it was that they loved the truth and would not part with it and I mention these things because they are connected with the present principles of the Church of Rome-shew the hatred that Popery bears to God's written Word, and the tyranny it would exercise over the

conscience. Brethren, believe me, there can be neither civil nor religious liberty where that system lives and reigns. If you thought of this, you would love your own Church better. Her scriptural character entitles her to your love. Follow in the path in which she leads you. Her simple ceremonies will aid your devotions, and her doctrines, drawn from "the oracles of God," will conduct your souls to glory.

SERMON X.

OF PURGATORY AND PARDONS.

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2 TIMOTHY, iv. 4.

They shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables."

Is it asked, "What is truth?" I answer, the doctrine delivered to the world by Christ and His Apostles, and by those who, before His coming,

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spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." We know, upon unquestionable evidence, that all that is contained within what is called "the Canon of Scripture," is exclusively the Word of God. The truth consequently is there: and if we keep to that Word, and follow it in humility, we shall not err; but if we go from it we shall fall into error. The Apostle, who, in the Text, foretold the apostacy that took place, pointed out this as the cause that led to that result. "They shall turn away their ears from the truth," and then they "shall be turned unto fables." And can we have a better illustration of this than that which the Church of Rome fur

nishes? She once held to Apostolic doctrine, and bowed only to the Scriptures: and while she did so, she was free from every superstition, and, for purity of faith, stood high among the churches. But she lost that reverence for God's inspired Word which secured her from evil. She allowed herself to think, that besides that Word there was another rule by which she might be guided. She yielded to the claims which Tradition advanced: and that was the date of her fall. Thenceforth she went from one false notion to another, growing darker and darker in proportion to her increased distance from the light of God's Word, till, at length, exalting Tradition over the Bible, she entirely hid the truth beneath her numberless superstitions, and became the corrupt Church we now find her.

Brethren, it is profitable to bring that Church before you, if it be only to hold her up as a warning to that of which you are members. BewareI would say to its ministers-beware how you point the people, who look to you for instruction, to the opinions of men who were not inspired. Take heed what you say in reference to the Fathers, even of the earliest and best times of the Church. You cannot claim for them, no not for Clement, Ignatius, and Polycarp, the nearest to the Apostles, an authority that belongs only to the Scriptures of God. Never, therefore, so speak of them as to induce a belief in the minds of your flocks that they may be appealed to as the guides of their faith: for if the principle be once adopted that we may go for truth to the Fathers as well as to the Bible,